BUSINESS
7 April 2013 Last updated at 15:01
The PCS union went on strike on the day of the Budget
Unions in general strike talks as
PCS vows 'fight back'
The PCS union went on strike on the day of the Budget
The union that represents government workers has said it is in talks on holding a general strike as it vowed to "fight back" over spending cuts.
Mark Serwotka, head of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), confirmed he was holding talks with other unions.
The PCS has already staged walkouts in a three-month campaign of industrial action over pay, jobs and conditions.
It will stage a half-day strike at HM Revenue and Customs on Monday.
Up to 55,000 workers at call centres and face-to-face enquiry centres at HMRC will take part on Monday, which coincides with the start of the new tax year and a host of changes to benefits and the PAYE tax system.
It comes after a planned 24-hour strike on Monday at the Home Office was postponed after a legal challenge from the government. The protest will now be "escalated to a week-long series of walkouts across various parts of the department in a fortnight's time", PCS said.
PCS is the fifth-largest trade union in the UK with 270,000 members.
'Fight back'
Mr Serwotka told Sky News: "We are definitely having a discussion about generalised strike action.
"More imminently than that we are having the beginnings of a much more detailed discussion between unions who have real industrial issues in front of them now about co-ordinating their efforts."
The union began its strike action - which involved civil servants, Border Agency personnel and driving test instructors - on the day of the Budget.
Unite, the UK's largest union with 1.4 million members, has submitted documents to the TUC union calling for a 24-hour general strike against the government's spending cuts, the BBC reported earlier this week. The proposal will be discussed at a TUC meeting on 24 April.
Mr Serwotka added: "My own opinion is that what the government is doing is getting so increasingly unpopular that even a 24-hour strike involving millions of people across the economy would be an incredibly important moment.
"It would show that people can fight back and say we don't just have to accept our lot."
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